Hold You For A Million Years
by BirdG
Summary: Sometimes words aren't necessary. Five silent moments between Frank and Alice Longbottom.


**Author's Note:** Thanks to QueenB23more and Vegablack62 for all their help with this! This was written for the HP_Fivethings Fest on LJ for Allie_Meril with the prompt of "Five Silent Moments Between Frank and Alice".

* * *

_(i've known it from the moment that we met)_

Heart pounding in his chest, sweat still cooling on his skin, Frank slumped down beside Alice. Save for the sound of their breathing, the room was silent, the only light coming from the lantern at her bedside. He looked over at Alice, watching her chest rise and fall, her hands trembling ever so slightly as she brushed the damp hair from face. Some part of his mind doubted this would ever happen.

He'd known Alice Peakes since Hogwarts but they'd never been more than classmates and occasionally Potions partners. Professor Slughorn had asked the Hufflepuff to tutor Frank during his fifth year, hoping that Alice's skill would rub off on him. It hadn't, but he passed his OWLs and a few cauldrons were saved in the process. Having impressed him with her intelligence and kindness, Frank had had a small crush on her but never told. He was too shy and Alice soon started seeing some seventh-year Ravenclaw while he moved on, dating and focusing on his future as an Auror.

It had been a pleasant surprise finding out that Alice was in the same Auror Cadet class as him. Sweeter still to learn that she had the same feelings for him. The Ministry discouraged casual relationships between Aurors so they both had to be certain this was more than just a passing phase. After two years of flirting and dancing around each other, two years of working side-by-side and knowing each other as partners and friends, Frank told her how he felt.

Watching the firelight dance over her bare skin, he traced invisible circles on her hip. Alice turned to look at him, her face still flushed and a shy grin playing on her mouth.

He wanted to remember this moment forever.

_(the winds of change are blowing wild and free)_

It was a gray and cold morning; howling wind and the crash of the waves against the rocks filled his ears. Frank hoped the sound was enough to drown out the little noises they made as they edged their way towards the Apparition Point.

They had returned to the Ministry after Moody had left for the day. Their information was important enough that Alice and Frank had decided to go to his home to tell him this new twist in their investigation. When they arrived, they found Moody – right leg badly wounded and holding onto a tree for support – in a duel with three Death Eaters.

Shifting his weight so he could better grasp the slumped form of Mad-Eye Moody in his arms, Frank didn't dare make a sound. Alice looked over his shoulder and gave a small nod. This was their chance. Knowing a Levitation Charm would only slow them down, he shifted the older Auror onto his shoulders. Alice stepped out ahead of them, throwing a Shield Charm to protect them before running, Frank following behind her. Jets of red and green light slammed against the barrier, and he was struck by how they reminded him of Muggle Christmas lights.

Alice reached the spot first, turning twice and holding out her hand for him. Frank took it and the three Disapparated together.

_(and the whole world is on your case)_

While in hiding, one of Alice's favorite pastimes was working in the garden. The complex illusions and glamors allowed them to move outside during the daytime without being spotted as long as they stayed within the wards. Alice had taken advantage of this, making use of the land around their cottage with rows of flowers, vegetables, and potions ingredients. Kneeling in the green grass, gloves on and straw hat on her head, she seemed in her element humming a Muggle song as she dug in the soil.

Last night, while curled against his chest, Alice admitted something he had guessed long ago: she would retire from the Aurors but only when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and all his followers had been caught. She liked the idea of becoming a gardener, it meant doing what she enjoyed and staying home with Neville. Sometimes it was hard to imagine a life beyond worrying and waiting. Fourteen months they'd spent in hiding and he wondered how much more of his son's childhood would pass like this. Would he ever see more of the world than this small patch of land?

Not that Neville cared. Alice joked that he enjoyed playing in the dirt as much as his she did. Toddling over to her now, he plopped down beside his mum. With a toothy grin to his dad, he buried his chubby fists in the soil.

_(i'd go hungry i'd go black and blue)_

The silence stretched between them. Lying across from him on the floor, Alice's brown eyes were wide with terror, her lips a thin white line. He knew, just like he knew so much about her, that she was trying not to cry out, not to say anything that would distract their attackers. If they said something, it could tip the four off to what they were hiding. If they didn't, if that had been Neville moving around upstairs, their assailants might go investigate anyway.

They had returned home early from the Ministry's Christmas party when they heard a woman's scream from outside. Worried their babysitter was in trouble, Frank had run outside and found Bellatrix Lestrange instead. He had screamed to Alice, telling her to run while he tried to hold off the four Death Eaters. He hadn't succeeded and Alice hadn't run. Hiding Neville somewhere upstairs, she met her husband's captors with a series of jinxes and hexes. For one brief moment, after he freed himself and both he and Alice seemed to have the Death Eaters bested, Frank thought they might get out of this.

His heart lurched as the floorboards above them shifted. The Lestranges stood guard over them as Crouch crept over to the staircase, wand at the ready.

Just when Frank was ready to break, ready to tell them whatever they wanted to hear to draw their attention away from his son, their gray tabby streaked down the stairs. Her eyes wild, Lestrange aimed a curse at it and missed, judging from the cat's angry hiss.

It had been enough though. They didn't find Neville.

_(i could offer you a warm embrace)_

Frank didn't like the night. It was too dark, too quiet. He liked the daytime, he liked the people in their green robes who might stop and talk to him and he liked the women in their odd hats and frilly aprons who were around constantly. Most of all he liked the visitors that came during the day, especially the older couple and their round-faced little boy.

He saw that little boy in his dreams sometimes. The happy ones, at least. The ones that weren't screaming and crying, bright lights and cruel laughter. No, these dreams were green grass and yellow flowers, a pretty dark-haired woman and the little boy in her arms.

He held a white-haired woman in his arms now. Some nights she would sneak into his bed and they'd fall asleep together. On those nights, it was easier to have the happier dream, the soft sound of her breathing soothed him and filled the quiet that surrounded him. Unlike the people in their green robes and the women in their funny hats, she was always there, the one constant.

And something about that seemed familiar, seemed right.

_(to make you feel my love)_


End file.
